Leon Camier charged from 15th on the grid to a hard-fought-for eighth position in the second race of today’s Imola World Superbike Championship.

The eighth placed finish made up for his DNF in race one after making contact with Joan Lascorz on the opening lap.   Crescent FIXI Suzuki team mate John Hopkins took his first points of the year in race one after battling through the field on the Yoshimura-powered GSX-R1000 from 19th to 13th in his 2012 race debut, but he was unable to repeat the feat in race two after severe arm-pump forced him to retire after just four laps.

Speaking after the race, Camier was left to reflect on a mixed weekend:

“I’m not sure if my coming together with Lascorz was my fault or just a racing incident. I made a reasonably good start and tried to make big gains straight away, passing a lot of people going into turn one.

“At turn five, I went round the outside of Giugliano and when I got back on the racing line, Lascorz and I collided and that was the end of my race. I managed to get the bike back to the pits, but crash damage prevented me from going out again.

“I’m pretty happy to get eighth place in the second race today and think I could’ve finished even higher if it hadn’t been for my grid position. I started pretty aggressively but soon fell into a good rhythm. I was lapping strongly at the end and was catching the group ahead, so who knows what would’ve happened with a better grid position.

“This series is very competitive and you have to be on the first two rows of the grid if you are to have any chance of a podium, so all things considering, eighth is pretty good.”

Camier’s Team Manager, Jack Valentine was disappointed for Camier who had clearly given his all:

“We knew all weekend that Leon could run in the top six because of his lap times, so it was unfortunate that he had to start from the fourth row of the grid. In race one, he had a collision with Lascorz and that was that.

“In race two, he got involved with the pack and was doing low 1:49s towards the end of the race, finishing a strong eighth. I’m pretty happy about that and it shows that the Crescent FIXI Suzuki has potential.